Maybe it was something in the water – or the air – or just political brain flatulence that led prominent Democrats last week to start hurling Nazi accusations at Republicans.

Having just read of some of the Nazi atrocities during World War II and having my consciousness raised again by the evil that has been, and can be, perpetrated by tyrannical monsters, it turns my stomach to know that elected Democrats and party operatives are accusing Republicans and their candidates of acting like Nazis.

It’s hard to resist the temptation to sink to their level by responding “it takes one to know one.”

“She was down in the bunker a la Eva Braun.”

Those were the words of Dick Harpootlian, chairman of South Carolina’s Democratic Party, referring to Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s GOP governor, who held news briefings in a basement studio at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

When questioned about comparing Haley to Braun, Hitler’s mistress, Harpootlian told Fox News, “I wasn’t saying she is Eve Braun or is like Eva Braun. I was saying she is hiding out – she is reclusive. … I don’t even know much about Eva Braun, just that she hung out in a bunker.”

Oh. Then again, maybe this was the first real symptom of desperation as Democrats are reading the handwriting on the wall that all is not well in the Obama administration.

The Wichita Eagle reported that Pat Lehman, of the Kansas Democrat delegation, compared the Romney talking points to the Nazi “Big Lie” strategy.

“It’s like Hitler said, if you’re going to tell a lie, tell a big lie, and if you tell it often enough and say it in a loud enough voice, some people are going to believe you.”

As if in lockstep, California Democrat Chairman John Burton jumped on the Nazi bandwagon. Interviewed by San Francisco radio station KCBS, he compared GOP tactics to Nazi propaganda.

“They lie, and they don’t care if people think they lie. As long as you lie, Joseph Goebbels, the big lie, you keep repeating it, you know.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, reportedly standing next to Burton when he made the accusation, refused to criticize.

Burton insists he never specifically said “Nazis” and apologized to anyone who was offended.

After that, he wrote a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, repeating his “apology.”

Methinks he protests too much.

In the same pattern, Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, fighting off GOP rival Josh Mandel, called him “the candidate of the big lie” – another reference to Goebbels Nazi propaganda technique.

It’s a more vicious accusation since Mandel is Jewish, but it’s apparently not an unusual Brown tactic. The Washington Examiner reported that last year Brown compared GOP governors who wanted union reform to Hitler and Stalin.

Nice guys, but perhaps it’s a sign they’re really listening to average Americans suffering from the worst financial crisis they’ve known and who can see enough into the real Obama future, that it will get worse before it gets better, if it ever does get better.

Maybe they actually paid attention to the DNC speeches last week and realized they were a lot of hoopla with no substance – read that “hot air.”

Consider: The man who is president, the man who touted himself to be the savior of everything during his first presidential campaign four years ago, the man who promised “hope and change” but omitted details, now touts himself as needing more time to accomplish those goals.

He takes no responsibility for any problems facing the country – it started with Bush, it continued because of Bush, it was made worse by the Republicans but, by golly, he tried.

Did you hear his speech? Did you notice that he managed, with a nice tone of voice, to put the responsibility for everything that took place during his term on YOU?

Obama actually said, “So you see, the election four years ago, wasn’t about me. It was about YOU. My fellow citizens, YOU were the change.”

Wait a minute, I thought we were told he would control the oceans and he was there to bring us the hope and change we needed.

He did say that.

But the script this year is that he had nothing to do with anything that happened the last four years – especially controversial things.

His speech continued:

Restricting insurance companies? “YOU did that!”

Making college affordable? “YOU did that!”

Preventing children of illegals from being deported? “YOU did that!”

Open gays and their partners OK in the military? “YOU did that!”

His litany was met with wild cheering and he ended that riff with “YOU DID THAT! YOU DID THAT! YOU DID THAT!”

Wow, and I’ll bet all along you thought that Obamacare was shoved unread through Congress by the Democrats and that taking over student loans originated in the White House, as did protection of illegals and gays in the military.

What devious cunning.

It’s another example of Obama not taking responsibility for his policies and the changes he’s placed on Americans, constitutional or not, and he had the convention drones cheering him.

Note: If any of those examples turns out badly, he will say you did that. He didn’t.

But he’s right about one thing. You can make a difference. If you see problems because of the last four years, you can vote and make a difference.

Vote for Mitt Romney. This country can’t afford – you can’t afford – more of the ineptitude, incompetence and deviousness of Barack Obama and his – shall I say it? – henchmen.